It had started before dawn with Cecil Bates standing alone in the street, watching Biddy ride off. When she had gone beyond his sight, his confusion and consternation fused into a clear-cut thought. He'd be triply damned if that heel Dan Parker hadn't been playing on the sympathy of the town all this time. Ever since Biddy had been brought back from the hospital in Phoenix. Could you beat it? Putting a brace on a kid's leg and making her wear it around town so people around town would be sorry for him. But why? What end did it serve? Then Cecil knew. Not the townspeople. Of course not. Sam Taber was the target of Dan's rotten plan. Who'd ever think a man would be so scared of his job he'd make his own daughter act a cripple in order to keep it? Well, he wouldn't get away with it any longer. Cecil fairly vibrated with the importance he felt within himself at having come upon this secret. He'd show this town. So they thought he was just a slob who sat in front of the jailhouse all day, did they? Just a bouncer to take drunks out of the tavern and sober them up behind bars. He'd show them they had to get up pretty early to get the wool over Cecil Bates' eyes and keep it there. Nick Sanford was just coming down to open his lunch counter in case any late drinkers wanted an early cup of coffee. Cecil hurried in that direction. Nick unlocked the door and said, "Hi, Ceec. Up early ain't you?" "Early enough to find out what's been going on around here." "Something happen?" "Your damn tootin' something's been happening. Met the little Parker girl riding out on her burro." "So early? Where was she going?" "Not important. The important thing was she didn't have her leg brace on." "Come on in while I make coffee." Bates followed Nick inside and said, "Didn't you hear me? I said she didn't have her leg brace on." "Why not?" "Because she didn't need it. She's never needed it. Her leg's as good as yours or mine." "You must be joking." "Did I ever joke, Nick?" Cecil asked tonelessly. * * * * * Nick had to concede that one. In all the time he'd owned the lunch room, he'd never seen Cecil Bates smile or say a light word. "What did Biddy have to say about it?" "Oh, she had some gobberish about a man up in the hills making her leg well. Something Dan probably told her to say if she ever got caught." "That doesn't seem logical. About Dan I mean. I can see why--" Cecil laid out his ideas on the subject and Nick shook his head. "Can't hardly go along with you on that. Don't figure it makes sense somehow." "Gimme a cup of that coffee, will you?" "Okay. So you think it's just been a masquerade all the time?" "What other answer is there? A spindly, pipe-stem little leg doesn't grow normal overnight." "But we saw Biddy's deformed leg. All of us." "I got that figured out too." "Then tell me."